Salisbury House & Gardens

I had always heard the The Salisbury house was a beautiful place to visit, full of history.  It's on Tonawanda Drive in Des Moines (not far from the Art Center).  But, with a little one, I never really found a time to visit.  That is, until I realized all of the fun events that they do throughout the year!  We went to their Halloween event last year, and my son couldn't wait to come back for this year's event.  They had face painting, Story-time with Dan Wardell, fantastic decorations, crafts, spooky science experiments and more. It's a great event.

I had no idea until this year that they had Christmas-time events too!  We attended the Chocolate-making class hosted by Beaverdale Confections at the Salisbury House and it was a blast!  My six year old can't stop talking about it.  It was only $20 and he took home over 30 pieces of chocolate!

Luckily, my friend Lisa was able to attend the Gingerbread house workshop and she was nice enough to share about her experience with us!  Thanks Lisa!  You might remember Lisa from her last guest post about The Little Gym =)

Hi!  Lisa here guest posting today about the Gingerbread workshop at Salisbury House in Des Moines.  

My 6 year old has been asking to make a gingerbread house, and I’ve been wanting to see the Salisbury House-so this was a perfect fit!!  

We opted to purchase one house and one student ticket for $20, but if you have more than one child, you might want to purchase more than one house.  

We were greeted on a very cold day by a nice volunteer in a big golf cart offering rides up from the street (overflow parking) to the house.  Once inside the house, we were led downstairs to a room that smelled of candy!!  The gingerbread house kits came with candy, but the volunteers had provided a ton more!  There was a lot of decorating, and a lot of eating the candy!!  Christmas music was playing while everyone worked away.  After we were finished, we were encouraged to leave our gingerbread house to dry and take a walk around the house.  

My 6 year old enjoyed the tour as much as I did!  Our favorite room was Edith’s bathroom…check it out and you’ll see why.  The Salisbury House was beautifully decorated for Christmas!  This included a huge tree, some local celebrity decorated gingerbread houses, and Santa in the garage next to a gorgeous red Packard!  Overall, a great local experience.  They have a lot of events and are supported by donations so check it out!  http://salisburyhouse.org/

Make sure your follow us (Eat Play Love Des Moines) and The Salisbury house on Facebook so we can remind you about upcoming events! =)